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Facebook float frenzy fades

MARK COLVIN: David Taylor joins me now for our look at today's business and finance.

Two days on, Facebook is looking a little worse for wear.

DAVID TAYLOR: Mark, Facebook has been trading on Wall Street now for two days but shares are well below last Friday's issue price of $38.

MARK COLVIN: It did seem insane.

DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah well there are questions over the legitimacy of the company's long term strategy, obviously based on advertising, and Facebook's underwriters actually had to step in on the listing day to prop up the share price.

But now of course the company's on its own and shares were down as much as 14 per cent on day two, leaving Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO there, a little red faced.

MARK COLVIN: And a bit poorer as well, I should imagine.

DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah, a little bit yeah.

MARK COLVIN: Mark Zuckerberg's personal wealth may have gone down but another US executive's made the top of the rich list.

DAVID TAYLOR: Mark, Apple's Tim Cook has topped the list of the best paid CEOs in the US in 2011.

Tim Cook took over from Steve Jobs in August last year and has pulled in a total pay packet of $US 378 million. And most of that is thanks to stock options, worth around $300 million.

MARK COLVIN: And at the other end of the spectrum; youth unemployment's dangerously high, in Australia?

DAVID TAYLOR: Around the world. This is global. So youth unemployment's stuck at levels reached during the global financial crisis.

The International Labour Organization says it's not likely to ease until 2016. The organisation says 75 million young people around the world are unemployed, putting the unemployment rate about 12 per cent.

And if you include those who've given up looking for work, it's even higher.

MARK COLVIN: Give us a thumbnail sketch of the share market, gold and the dollar.

DAVID TAYLOR: Well shares had a bit of a relief rally today; the All Ords up 49 points or 1.2 per cent to 4,173.